


We’re All Adults Here

by Cryptographic_Delurk



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, Jerkwallers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 16:28:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29612196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cryptographic_Delurk/pseuds/Cryptographic_Delurk
Summary: Anders and Isabela tell Merrill to stay away from the Chantry.
Relationships: Fenris & Merrill (Dragon Age)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	We’re All Adults Here

**Author's Note:**

> “ _What does your Chantry do? I mean, you keep saying how great it is. Anders and Isabela tell me to stay away from it. But what does it do?_ ” – Merrill to Sebastian, Act 3

It was always nice when Sebastian got a little fuzzy with drink at Wicked Grace night. He would do the silliest things, like sing prayers to the woman in the Chant, or regale them with stories about the trouble he’d caused the Sisters, when he was first confirmed.

“I really like the robes,” Merrill said, tossing gambling chips that meant nothing to her in the pile on the table. “In Ferelden, all the Chantry robes were pink and maroon, and made everyone look a bit like a blushy nug. But I like the grey and red ones they have here. They also had white ones when I was in Nevarra that I liked too. Do you think they’d let me try on the robes if I went up to the Chantry? We’d have to hem them up so they didn’t drag on the floor. But I think they’d look nice on me. A little extra mage-y even.”

“I’m sure we can find-” Sebastian began, but he was swiftly cut off by a louder voice in the seat next to Merrill’s.

“Oh, you don’t want to go up there, Kitten,” Isabela warned.

“Why not?” Merrill asked.

“Why would you?” Isabela leaned back in her chair and fanned her hand of cards close to her chest. “It’s terribly boring. And besides, you’re always so busy with that mirror, you hardly have the time to come see me… Tell you what, Kitten, every time you start thinking you want to head up to the Chantry, you come by and see me at the Hanged Man instead. Promise me. We’ll make a date of it.”

Merrill chuckled. She propped her elbow on the table, and leaned her head against it. “And what do I do when I come by the Hanged Man and you’re nowhere to be found?”

“Then you’ll come find Varric instead, and he’ll tell you a story about hydras or griffins or some-odd. Isn’t that right, Varric? You’ll have my back on this?”

The conversation moved on, and Merrill thought that was the end of it. The cards had been collected at the end of the night and Varric had seen to changing the chips he’d given her to money, and Hawke and Isabela had both already wandered off back to Hightown. Merrill was thinking about the Eluvian and sleepless nights, and she doubled her scarf around her neck when Anders waylaid her on the way out the door.

“Isabela’s serious, Merrill. You’d better stay away from the Chantry.” He was in a mood. Maybe about how many games he had lost. About something Aveline or Sebastian or Fenris had said to his discredit. Or about something Varric or Hawke or Isabela hadn’t said in his defense.

“Why should I?” Merrill queried.

“This is serious!” Anders hissed. “Only you could live here six years and still-! Stay away from it, or you’ll get yourself hurt!” She watched his ugly scowl vanish as he turned it out of the moonlight and disappeared back to Darktown.

There was a snort behind her, and she turned to see Fenris loitering by the entrance, watching with narrowed eyes and a scowl nearly as fierce as Anders’s had been.

“Are you going to tell me to stay away from the Chantry too?” she asked.

Fenris sneered derisively. “If you are truly that stupid, you can go and get yourself captured and beheaded for all I care.”

Merrill supposed she wasn’t.

“You know, Fenris,” she told him. “Everyone’s a little stupid sometimes. That doesn’t mean they deserve the worst things that have ever happened to them.” It didn’t mean they deserved to be taken from their families, or have lyrium shoved up under their skin, or be forced to betray those they loved and be betrayed in return.

“And now the witch starts to preach at me instead,” Fenris snarled. “Don’t pay forward a gift you would rather have not received in the first place.” He turned on his heel and stalked away.

Merrill scrunched her nose. But as she began her trip back to the Alienage, she found herself thinking it was reasonable enough advice.

It wasn’t as if he didn’t know he was being unfair. Fenris wasn’t that stupid either.


End file.
